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stance is thy stock, mine interest is for thy service. I lay all at thy feet: there thou hast them, they are thine. My children I enter as thy servants. My possessions I resign as thy right. I will call nothing mine but thee. All mine are thine. I can say, My Lord and my God, and that is enough; I thankfully quit my claim to all things else. I will say no more, My house is mine, or my estate mine; I myself am not mine own. Yet it is infinitely better for me to be thine, than if I were mine own. This is my happiness, that I can say, My own God, my own. Father. And, oh, what a blessed exchange hast thou made with me! to give me thyself, who art an infinite sum, for myself, who am but an insignificant cipher.

And now, Lord, do thou accept and own my claim. I am not worthy of any thing of thine, much less of thee. But since I have a deed to show, I bring thy Word in my hand, and am bold to take possession. Dost thou not know this hand? wilt thou not own this name? wilt thou not confirm thine own grant? It were infidelity to doubt it. I will not disparage the faithfulness of my Lord, nor be afraid to aver, and stand to what he hath said and sworn. Hast thou said thou art my God, and shall I fear thou art my enemy? Hast thou told me thou art my Father, and shall I stand aloof, as if I were a stranger? I will believe. Lord, silence my fears; and as thou hast given me the claim and title of a child, so give me the confidence of a child. Let my heart be daily kept alive by thy promises, and with this staff let me pass over Jordan. May these be my undivided companions and comforters. When I go, let them lead me; when I sleep, let them keep me; when I awake, let them talk to me. And do thou keep these things for ever upon the imaginations of the thoughts of the hearts of thy people, and prepare their hearts unto thee. And let the heart of thy servant be the ark of thy testament, wherein the sacred records of what hath passed between thee and my soul may for ever be preserved.-Alleine.

SILVER SLIPPER PROFESSORS.

PROFESSORS of religion who are of the largest size, who are not so strict to their rule but they can dispense with duty, nor so forward in point of zeal and activity but they can remit and abate, as occasion serves, may escape this persecuting world the better; but he that will be faithful, whoever escape, is sure to be made a prey. This also must be well considered, I will follow Christ, but can I drink of the cup that he drank of? can I be baptized with the baptism, the baptism of blood, that he was baptized with?

There are persons who sometimes take up the profession of religion, and resolve all on a sudden they will follow Christ, not understanding what there is in it, or what Christianity may stand them in; who, by the time they have looked a little farther, and find it another manner of difficulty than at first they imagined; and withal, find the armies of the aliens to fall on, the dogs to tear, the wolves to worry, the eagles and the vultures, and all the birds of prey, to pitch upon them; and begin in earnest to feel the smart of religion, in those persecutions that are raised upon them for it, presently make their retreat, and go back; Where am I? What have I chosen ? Is this to be a Christian? Doth Christ look for all this from his followers, and will he leave them to such violence and rapine, as the reward of their faithful

ness to his name? I never thought it had been suct. hot service, and if I cannot be a saint at a cheaper. rate than this, follow Christ who will for me; let those who have nothing to lose, or can bear so much labour, and pains, and violence, take it up, if they please: for my part, I must look to myself, I must

not be undone.

"Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," said the scribe, Matt. viii. 9. Man, thou understandest not what thou sayest. Dost thou know whither I am going, where my dwelling, where my lodging is? "The foxes have holes, and the birds! of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." And, behold! there is an end of the scribe's Christianity, we hear not one word more about it.-Ibid.

SABBATH BREAKING, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

SOME months ago, three young men in the vicinity of went out sailing on the Sabbath. All of them were warned against it, and one of them had been repeatedly warned against similar conduct. This last replied, he would go if he went to the bottom of the river; and all went. By a sudden turn of wind the boat was upset, and all three found a watery grave!

On the last Sabbath of April last, accidents happened on six out of the seven railroads between Albany and Buffalo. On all property was destroyed and life endangered; and on one a fatal accident occurred, causing several deaths, in most distressing circumstances. Several persons were killed outright; one was crushed under a boiler, the friends of another were picking out his mangled limbs from the ruins of a shattered car, and three individuals nearly dead were carried to a neighbouring farm-house; and cars, baggage, mail bags, and locomotives, were mingled in the fearful wreck, while the smoke of the dismal sadness over the scene.

half-extinguished fires of the locomotives threw a

Such events, if not special, certainly are warning providences, speaking in terror to the violators of God's holy day. When will men learn to feel that God is in earnest, when he commands all to "Remember the Sabbath-day?"-American paper.

UNHAPPY HAPPINESS. SOME men are so unhappy in having happy wits, that they make their wit their happiness-jesting themselves out of all that is earnest, and like fools make sport of every thing, even sin itself. Alas! what than to destroy themselves! A jesting lie, or a lie in pity it is that men so witty should have no more wit jest, may make a man to lie in hell in earnest.— Venning.

Fragments.

The Christian's feeling himself weak, makes him strong.

Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peripatetic. It goeth about doing good.

Some things, which could not otherwise be read in the book of nature, are legible enough in it when the lamp of revelation is held up to it.

It is easier to do a great deal of mischief than to accomplish a little good.

THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY.

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THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY WORSHIP ON VISITORS,

GUESTS, AND NEIGHBOURS.

BY THE REV. JAMES W. ALEXANDER, NEW YORK.

As" none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself," it is right and seemly that this principle of devotion to the Lord should be impressed on the domestic organization. The Christian household is not for itself; by grace it may be as a city set on a hill. Family worship is a means of carrying out this influence. Good and evil are constantly and rapidly propagated from house to house. What we denominate public opinion and public character, are very much dependent on this agency, which is not less certain than the silent but mighty transmission of the electric fluid in the material world. The dialect of towns and provinces is thus originated and fixed; modes of dress, and furniture, and living, are carried from circle to circle; extravagance and vice circulate by the same channels; as do likewise political opinions, and even religious sentiments. Such are the action and re-action between man and man, that we never go into a neighbour's house, or receive a neighbour into our own, without giving or receiving some imperceptible impression; and by the sum of these are our character and manners formed.

will not be marvellous if he be drawn to some new and serious reflection. The impression may be greater than we suppose, from the very influence of novelty. These acts of divine service will have a tendency to show him, that here, at least, is a circle in which God is continually recognised. If a householder himself, he will necessarily be led to contrast with this the condition of his own domestic affairs; and if he is a professing Christian, living in neglect of this duty, he will doubtless experience a pang of conscience. Example is powerful: he may see his way more clear, to make his own habitation a house of prayer.

"Some years ago," says Mr Hamilton of London," an Irish wanderer, his wife, and his sister, asked a night's shelter in the cabin of a pious schoolmaster. With the characteristic hospitality of his nation, the schoolmaster made them welcome. It was the hour for evening worship, and when the strangers were seated, he began by reading slowly and solemnly the 2d chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The young man sat astonished. The expres sions, dead in trespasses and sin,'' children of Families differ very widely in respect to wrath,'' walking after the course of this world,' their freedom of intercourse. While some are were new to him. He sought an explanation. shut up within themselves, others keep open He was told that this is God's account of the doors, and are frequented by numbers of visit- state of man by nature. He felt that it was. ors and guests. When the friend whom we exactly his own state. In this way I have cherish is under our roof, he should be made walked from my childhood. In the service of to discern the reigning principle of the place. the god of this world we have come to your In a dwelling where there is no worship he may house." He was on the way to a fair, where he be pardoned if he say, "Surely the fear of God intended to pass a quantity of counterfeit is not in this place." But in a religious house- money. But God's Word had found him out. hold, even the casual visitor must sometimes be He produced his store of coin, and begged his made sensible that there is a perpetual refe-host to cast it into the fire, and asked anxiously rence to another world. Suppose him to be under the Christian roof at the appointed hour of prayer. It is well in every such case if the service is not omitted or postponed. He may be a stranger to such solemnities: he may be even careless or profane. Yet when he sees the whole family gathered, with stillness and decerum; when he hears the Word of God read, and joins in the psalm of praise, and kneels with the rest in an act of worship, it

if he could not obtain the Word of God for himself. His request was complied with, and next morning, with the new treasure, the party, who had now no errand to the fair, returned to their own home. Perhaps by this time the pious schoolmaster has met his guest within the gates of the city, outside of which are thieves, and whatsoever maketh a lie. But I cannot enumerate all the conversions which have occurred at the Church in the house."

"A few years ago," says the same writer, an English gentleman visited America, and spent some days with a pious friend. He was a man of talent and accomplishments, but an infidel. Four years afterwards he returned to the same house, a Christian. They wondered at the change, but little suspected when and where it had originated. He told them that when he was present at their family worship, on the first evening of his former visit, and when after the chapter was read, they all knelt down to pray, the recollection of such scenes in his father's house, long years ago, rushed on his memory, so that he did not hear a single word. But the occurrence made him think, and his thoughtfulness ended in his leaving the howling wilderness of infidelity, and finding a quiet rest in the salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ."

any consistent, God-fearing household fail of diffusing a hallowed force, in every direction. Bad influences fly thus, why shall not good ones! It is true, from the depravity of our nature, men follow evil rather than good; but it is also true, blessed be God! that divine grace uses the very same channels of connexion for the conveyance of truth and holiness.

Suppose only a single pious family, observing the worship of God, without shame or concealment, in the midst of a wicked society. Their peculiar ways, and this service in particular, will attract notice and beget remark. The visitor, or the passer-by, will hear the voice of praise or prayer. The observation will be natural, That house is a house of prayer; God is honoured in that house. Neighbours will learn that here is a man who arranges all his business, and fixes all his hours, with reference to the daily household devotion, which' nothing is allowed to interrupt. There are occasions in which this peculiarity of the dwelling is brought into full light. In cases of sudden illness, calamity, or soul-trouble, every one will know whither to go for a praying man, to kneel by the bed of death, or to speak peace to the troubled conscience. Where such households are multiplied in any town or neighbourhood, by means of counsel and example, there is a mighty increase given to the expansive Christian principle, such as often changes the whole face of society. How earnestly ought we to pray that this particular means of social and national improvement may receive an immediate extension throughout our beloved land; and that unfaithful professors, living in neglect of this plain duty, may awake to repentance and reformation! What a change might we expect soon to see in regions where now the feeble piety which exists is like a half-expiring taper, which scarcely reaches beyond its little

By this pleasing incident we are led to observe, that the influence of family worship is peculiarly great upon guests who abide for some days or weeks in a Christian house, even if they have been brought up at home without such privileges. All that has just been pointed out here operates more freely and for a longer time. The beauty of holiness, and the pleasantness of the ways of God, are silently brought before their contemplations. We could name instances in which such a sojourn in a pious family has made deep impressions on worldly minds, in favour of evangelical religion. This ought surely to rest on the thoughts of Christian householders, in the way of duty. We are, perhaps, ready enough to make our guests welcome, to provide for their lodging and refreshment, to show them the wonders of our environs, and to invite friends for their entertainment; but besides this, we owe a duty to their souls. It ought not for a moment to be thought possible, that a dear friend or relative should stay weeks, or even days, in our house, without receiving some spiritual advan-home-circle! tage. How often have the visits of careless young persons to godly families been made instrumental of their salvation! Among the means tending in this direction, we know none more fruitful than that which forms the subject of this paper.

But we must by no means narrow down the efficacy of daily worship to that which takes place within a particular house. The whole neighbourhood feels the influence. Let us not undervalue the power of Christianity. No single believer can abide long in a place without making it in some degree better; the true leaven will work—the true light will shine. Nor can

We are under the humbling impression that this is one of the points in regard to which, with all our boast of superior privileges, we have not improved on the example of our pious forefathers. Among the Presbyterians of Scotland, and the English Nonconformists of the seventeenth century, there was probably a far smaller proportion of Christian professors liv ing in prayerless houses than among ourselves. The performance of this duty was made matter of special investigation, by pastors and elders, and even by superior judicatories of the Church. And the effect was a diffusion of piety, more unobtrusive perhaps, but not less rapid, and

CHRISTIAN PHYSICIANS.

certainly not less sound, than that which, in our day, we are fond of seeking by periodical excitements and doubtful measures. The sacred treasure of one house became the portion of many, and whole communities caught the fire which may have been enkindled in a corner. Such was the case in the town of Kidderminster, which was blessed with the labours of that eminent servant of God, Richard Baxter; and his testimony, however familiar, is too valuable to be omitted in this place. "On the Lord's-day," says Mr Baxter," there was no disorder to be seen in the streets; but you might hear a hundred families singing psalms, and repeating sermons, as you passed through the streets. When I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on his name; and when I came away, there were some streets where there was not above one family in the side of a street that did not so, and that did not, by professing serious godliness, give us some hopes of their sincerity; and those families which were the worst, being inns and alehouses, usually some persons in each did seem to be religious. Some of the poor men did competently understand the Body of Divinity, and were able to judge in difficult controversies. Some of them were so able in prayer, that very few ministers did match them in order and fulness and apt expressions, and holy oratory with fervency. Abundance of them were able to pray very laudably with their families, or with others. The temper of their minds, and the innocency of their lives, was much more laudable than their parts."

It may sometimes be the case, that a man of humble station, and defective culture of mind, may be called upon to perform this duty in the presence of guests, or strangers, whom he regards as much superior to himself, and this will doubtless be a trial to his faith. But let him not shrink from the service of God. In a

majority of instances, those very persons will go away with a higher estimate of his character, for this very act of duty. Each of us should remember the words of David, when he said, "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed." When George IV. was in Ireland, as we find related by the Rev. Dr Sprague, he told Lord Roden, that, on a particular morning, he would breakfast with him. He accordingly came, bringing with him two or three of the nobility, and happened to arrive just as his lordship and family were assembled for domestic worship.

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Lord Roden, being informed that his royal guest had arrived, went to the door, and with every token of respect, conducted him into the house. Then, turning to the king, he said," "Your majesty will not doubt that I feel highly honoured by this visit, but there is a duty which I have not yet discharged this morning, which I owe to the King of kings-that of performing domestic worship; and your majesty will be kind enough to excuse me while I retire with my household, and attend to it." Certainly," replied the king, "but I am going with you;" and he immediately rose and followed him into the hall, where the family were assembled, and taking his seat in an old arm-chair, remained during the family devotion.

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In reading accounts of the persecuted Nonconformists, it is remarkable how often we find that they were arrested by pursuivants and other officers, at the time of family worship: this was an hour when they were sure to be taken together. Besides, at a time when the public gifts of Christ's ministers were restrained by the act of uniformity, it was not unusual for neighbours to come in at the season of domestic prayer, and thus the household assembly would often become an unlawful conventiele. Even in our own day, ministers of the gospel, and other pious persons, have opened their doors to neighbours who thirsted for truth and devotion; and in this way the religion of the family may extend itself with blessings to the vicinity.

The household prayer-meeting cannot have a more auspicious origin. O when shall we behold the day when every professing Christian in our Church shall be duly awake to the power of the instrumentality which is lodged in his hands!

CHRISTIAN PHYSICIANS.

BY THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, LONDON.* THE first Christian physician of whom we have A man of faith and any record is Luke. energy, he was the chosen companion of Paul in his missionary journeys, and had a large share in the introduction of the gospel to Europe. Luke, or Silas, as he is sometimes called, was one of those who first crossed over to Macedonia to "help" the heathen world, and on the memorable night of the Philippian earthquake he was Paul's fellow-prisoner. And no hardships cooled his zeal, no dangers quenched his courage; for, years after we find

*From the English Presbyterian Messenger. This Magazine, to which we have of late been considerably indebted, is a vigorous well conducted monthly, which, although denominational, is yet most catholic in its spirit and contains much admirable matter of a practical kind.

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him still true to his friend and stedfast to his Saviour-the apostle's chief comfort at Rome. And as one of the first who preached the gospel on the classic shores of Greece and Italy was a member of the medical profession, so it was the accomplished pen of this beloved physician which Inspiration employed for preserving the early annals of the Christian faith, and writing one of the four narratives of the Saviour's earthly history.

Without reverting to the antiquities of the profession, I may just mention that the two most renowned names in the history of the English faculty are the names of Christian men-HARVEY, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood; and SYNDENHAM, the earliest precursor of the modern practice of physic. The one was a steady member of the Church of England, and the other a hearty Puritan; but, so far as we can judge from scanty records, they were both sound divines and sincere believers.

The name of which Holland is most proud, is that of HERMAN BOERHAAVE. As far as I understand it, his great glory was carrying out what our own Syndenham began. The English physician had sufficient sagacity to see that symptoms are nature's efforts to get rid of a mischief, and that the great function of physic is to help nature's process; and he had strength of mind to act on what he saw. He prescribed remedies so mild and natural that patients who liked an elaborate cure thought him a trifler; and the old school blackballed him as endangering the craft and divulging the mysteries. And Boerhaave systematized the shrewd hints of Syndenham. He took for his motto, "Simplex sigillum veri-Simplicity the test of truth;" and instead of shrouding his knowledge in an obscure terminology, or assailing disease by remedies as direful as itself, it was his great effort to make knowledge plain and practice easy. And bringing to his adopted science all the light which anatomy, chemistry, and botany supplied, as well as his vast acquirements in mathematical and mechanical philosophy, and expounding it with that classical distinctness and homely elegance which are natural to a mind master of its subject and eager to make converts of others, his lectures at Leyden infected with medical enthusiasm a multitude of ardent youth, and carried not a few captives from the other professions. But the great secret of the moral power of Boerhaave, and one chief source of his exuberant information, was his habitual piety. Being asked how he was able to acquire so much knowledge and overtake so much business, he answered, that it was his custom on rising to spend the first hour of the morning in reading the Bible and in meditation and prayer. This gave him spirit and vigour for the engagements of the day, and the consciousness that a reconciled God was present prepared him for all emergencies. And once, when a friend asked

if he knew what it was to be angry? he answered, that he was naturally of quick resentment, but daily prayer and watchfulness had given him the victory over himself. You must have noticed that in most cases moral excellence is essential to intellectual ascendency. A teacher may be exact in his science, aud clear in his expositions, but from his coldness or reserve, may demonstrate with little success; whilst another, perhaps his inferior in attainment, shall fire with his own ardour a whole class of devotees. And it was Boerhaave's infectiousness, no less than his matchless information, which made him the prince of instructors. Phlegmatic Dutchman, as he ought to have been, there was a warm transfusion in his teaching which opened the heart and won the ear; and abstruse or repelling subjects became attractive in his own benignant baptism. And so far as there was a moral charm about this great oracle of last century, he himself made no secret of its cause. Faith in the sayings, and an affectionate imitation of the blessed Saviour, he often avowed to be the good means for rendering life tranquil, and for imparting elevation and magnanimity to the individual character; and they were the faith and magnanimity of his character which gave a moral spell to Boerhaave.

I feel strongly tempted to notice two pupils of this illustrious man; one of them, Sir JOHN PRINGLE, among the first who purposely applied the resources of science to mitigate the horrors of war, and who filled the chair of the Royal Society, when every year was bringing up the great discoveries of Cook, and Hutton, and Priestley, and Maskelyne-but who added to all his honours a happiness to which his youth was a stranger, and who, from calm and earnest study, became, and in the most scoffing age and amidst philosophic sceptics, avowed himself, a believer in the Bible. The other, as much the glory of Switzerland as Boerhaave was the pride of Holland; one of the most eminent combinations of genius with industry, and taste with science, and piety with all which our species has ever yielded; an anatomist, whose researches in physiology and the structure of the human frame have never been superseded; a botanist, who produced the most complete and beautiful of native Floras; a scholar, who published a descriptive list of 18,000 books belonging to his own profession; a poet, who wrote the most popular works of all his living countrymen; a professor, for whose services the sovereigns of England, Russia, and Prussia, competed, and who received beneath his roof the visit of an emperor; but, above all, a Christian, whose "Letters on the Truth of Revelation" give the triumphant reason of the hope that was in him; and whose pure morals and gentle disposition, whose cheerful life and tranquil death, alongside of his neighbour at Coppet. looked as if providence designed a

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